Blooming from Both Sides

Since the Corrosive Beak Demon Vulture was the target chosen by the Twin-Blade Demon before the operation began, it immediately argued with righteous indignation, demanding that Ivette deal with the Night Walker Demon and the Mechanical Tyrant, and stop stealing its kills.

This caused Ivette's eyebrows to furrow involuntarily.

Her total magic power was 644 points. With 100 points reserved for emergencies, she had 544 left. Factoring in the three Stage 3 Aberrations she was expected to face, including the nest master, roughly 180 points of magic power were allocated per kill.

The attack that heavily damaged the Corrosive Beak Demon Vulture had already consumed nearly 50 points of magic power. Reallocating that to the Twin-Blade Demon now meant that 50 points of her magic power went into working for the Twin-Blade Demon...

However, this was a critical moment, and the Twin-Blade Demon appeared rather useless. For now, she could only overlook it, planning to conserve enough magic power while dealing with the Night Walker Demon and the Mechanical Tyrant to handle the yet-to-appear Tide Worm Queen and the mysterious source of the dense fog.

While Ivette and the Twin-Blade Demon were allocating targets, the Mechanical Tyrant and the Night Walker Demon were not idle either.

The Mechanical Tyrant tilted its triangular head, shaped like a speed boat, slightly upwards. A metal plate opened below, revealing a cannon wrapped in flesh and tissue, and it fired an intensely scorching flame pillar. The Night Walker Demon, with its heavy, bloated gait, charged forward, revealing its gaping maw capable of swallowing a small car, as if intending to bite down on the very ground beneath.

This was actually a good opportunity, especially since the intelligence of these Stage 3 Aberrations was not high, comparable to ordinary beasts. Ivette immediately used Muscle Unlimit and Wind Control to adjust her position, sidestepping the Night Walker Demon's maw while using it as a shield to absorb the flame pillar fired by the Mechanical Tyrant.

She then combined the Flame Dance and Wrath of Thunder spells, unleashing them at the Night Walker Demon's head. With this pincer attack, accompanied by a fierce shriek, the Night Walker Demon immediately flapped its wings and fled backward, seemingly attempting to escape.

It escaping is good; it saves me some magic power... Ivette thought. But she couldn't rejoice for long before seeing the Night Walker Demon, halfway through its escape, stop again. After struggling in place for a moment, it turned around and approached again.

Now Ivette understood. It was likely a mandatory command from the mother nest, a price all Aberrations that relied on the mother nest for evolution had to pay.

However, this time, the returning Night Walker Demon wasn't as foolish. It also realized that the Mechanical Tyrant beside it was not a smart teammate, and it positioned itself far away from the Mechanical Tyrant. Then, it opened its massive maw and spat out countless pitch-black vampire bats, swarming towards Ivette like a dark cloud.

At the same time, the Mechanical Tyrant, feeling no guilt for friendly fire, immediately began its next round of attacks. The cannons on its arms fired elemental bullets continuously, and the muzzle below its body began to glow red, brewing another round of flame jets.

Standing in the open, Ivette could no longer quickly bait the two into harming each other. After a slight calculation of her magic power expenditure, she summoned dense rune circles beside her once more.

Frost Bolt, Wind Blade, Fire Snake, Lightning – a dazzling array of magic spells emerged from the rune circles, colliding with the incoming flames, elemental bullets, and vampire bats.

Various vibrant magic particles splashed and annihilated each other in the field, almost turning it into a colorful ocean of elements.

Meanwhile, the Twin-Blade Demon and the Corrosive Beak Demon Vulture, not far away, were entangled with each other. The Twin-Blade Demon, using its speed advantage, continuously circled and taunted the Corrosive Beak Demon Vulture, playing with it like a cat, enjoying the back-and-forth.

But after the appearance of this dazzling elemental storm, both sides simultaneously stopped their actions. A pair of compound eyes, two vulture heads, a scorched vulture head – all of them synchronously fixed their gaze on the center of the battlefield, as if they had completely forgotten each other's existence.

After a while, seeing that the silver-haired girl's side had stronger and more intense firepower, on the verge of victory, the Corrosive Beak Demon Vulture turned and fled. The Twin-Blade Demon immediately pursued, both entering the dense fog one after the other, disappearing without a trace.

A grayish-white color permeated the surroundings, like the perpetual mist of the River Styx in mythology.

Here, the scorching sun, blue sky, and white clouds were all absent. Only the damp, cold air was drawn into the lungs, making one feel as if they had returned to the harsh winter with howling winds and snow.

Gripping the hilt of her Alloy Combat Blade, Rosaline felt her arms trembling slightly. This was her first confrontation with a truly powerful enemy since she began her magic training six years ago, and in such a bizarre environment, it was inevitable that her heart would race, and she might even entertain thoughts of retreat.

Why am I so unlucky? she thought in frustration. If it were the Corrosive Beak Demon Vulture or even the Mechanical Tyrant, she wouldn't be this scared.

But the Shepherd Sheep was truly terrifying. Hidden in the mist, it constantly gnawed on bloody human heads, making it sound like a ghost story. She had become desensitized to the ugliness of Aberrations, but she had always been resistant to ghosts and spirits.

Fortunately, her swordsmanship techniques were already exceptionally skilled, allowing her to react quickly and decapitate them every time she was attacked.

I can't keep this up; it's too passive. I'll get hurt eventually... With this thought, Rosaline decided to try using Wind Control to blow away the surrounding mist. Unlike her teacher, she only had 81 magic points. Maintaining the effects of Scarlet Armor and Muscle Unlimit left her with very little spare magic power. Every use had to be carefully calculated; any waste meant a significant loss in combat effectiveness.

Without rushing to use it immediately, she began to wait patiently, looking for the moment the Shepherd Sheep would reveal itself again.

Through several observations during its attacks, she had discovered that the direction from which the heads flew was not necessarily where the Shepherd Sheep was located. Sometimes, it would even place a head on top of Rosaline's head and then bite down fiercely, which had startled her at the time, making her think her hair was about to be pulled off.

The only chance was the moment its footsteps stopped, like... now! Rosaline's eyes widened. Qing light wrapped around her blade as she charged forward, drawing her sword in a slash that sent out a crescent wind blade, shredding the mist in front of her. Unexpectedly, the path revealed in that direction was empty.

Rosaline froze for a moment, but in the next instant, she felt a strange movement from above.

She suddenly looked up and saw, at a certain point overhead, the sheep-headed monster, using its humanoid limbs to grasp a thick, purple-glowing tree branch, hanging there and watching her! A bone-chilling smile spread across its sheep-like face, and then it suddenly let go, descending like a meteor, reaching for her!

Even more terrifyingly, its shriveled abdomen suddenly split open to the sides, and dozens of grotesque, screaming human faces poured out, like the gates of hell opening, spewing endless malice and despair, intending to devour her completely.

Damn it... Rosaline's mind went blank, and only the combat instincts accumulated over three years took over her body.

Without using any extra magic to assist in combat, she relied on her muscle memory to dodge the Shepherd Sheep's descending slap, just as she had dodged surprise attacks from Aberrations countless times.

Then, she still swung her blade instinctively, not even activating High-Frequency Oscillation or High-Voltage Current. Relying only on Muscle Unlimit, the most basic enhancement spell, she unleashed countless slashes, severing countless human heads.

Furthermore, the Shepherd Sheep didn't seem to be good at close-quarters combat. Although its strength was great, its movements were as slow as if it were playing at 0.5x speed, extremely sluggish. It wasn't even as effective as some low-level Aberrations that only relied on cowardly sneak attacks – like the Twin-Blade Demon. Thus, she easily dodged the Shepherd Sheep's heavy punches, then drew her blade back for a counter-slash, repeatedly counter-slashing...

Finally, after an unknown amount of time, when she gripped the hilt of her sword, gasping for breath and regaining her senses, the terrifying monster's body had been chopped into a pile of bloody scraps and minced meat, dying a particularly gruesome death. Its sheep head lay not far away, its expression grim, eyes full of terror, suggesting it had suffered immense, inhuman torture before death.

And she stood amidst the viscous, fragmented remains, like a perverted girl murderer bathing in blood.

After a moment of stunned silence, realizing the enemy was dead, the blonde girl finally let out a long sigh. Wiping the blood from her face, she couldn't help but smile.

Teacher will definitely be surprised... she thought happily.